Los Angeles City Council District 3: Gaspar Leads Worth Girvan by 294 Votes as West Valley Waits

WEST SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, LOS ANGELES — November 5, 2026. In a contest to represent Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Canoga Park, Reseda, Winnetka and surrounding West Valley neighborhoods, the race for Los Angeles City Council District 3 remains separated by fewer than 300 votes. County results published at 4:32 p.m. Pacific on November 4 give Timothy K. Gaspar 26,322 votes (50.28%) and Barri Worth Girvan 26,028 (49.72%), a 294-vote lead for Gaspar. These numbers are preliminary, and no legal result has been certified.

How a West Valley lead changed overnight

In the very first Election Day batch at 8:18 p.m. November 3, Worth Girvan was in front: 17,276 candidate votes versus 16,509 for Gaspar. Subsequent returns changed the order. A timestamped county results log shows Gaspar overtaking her in later Tuesday batches; in the most recent accessible Wednesday afternoon file, his advantage is 294. A lead change across batches can occur during normal tabulation and is not, by itself, evidence of any irregularity.

The two candidates and their backgrounds

Gaspar is a businessman who founded and operated a San Fernando Valley insurance firm and has argued that his private-sector experience can help manage city services. Worth Girvan has worked in government offices and served as Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s district director, presenting her government experience as a reason she could effectively represent constituents. The Los Angeles Times reported the candidates’ reactions and campaign backgrounds. Their policy arguments are attributed to them rather than adopted as a California58 position.

Why the seat is open

Longtime District 3 Councilmember Bob Blumenfield is leaving the council because of term limits. The election selects a new representative to deliberate on municipal budgets, housing, transportation, public safety, local infrastructure and service delivery. The city council’s district-specific vote is not a citywide election like the mayoral race, and it has a different pool of eligible voters.

What the outstanding ballots do — and do not — tell us

MyNewsLA reported November 5 that an estimated 842,000 ballots were pending countywide in the earlier Los Angeles County update. But it is unknown how many of those belong to Los Angeles city residents, much less Council District 3 voters. Applying all 842,000 pending county ballots to this 294-vote local race would be a serious error. Additional mail, provisional and conditional-registration ballots may change the local count; the number and voting pattern still to be counted in District 3 are not established by the available countywide backlog.

Where residents can check the next update

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk publishes election returns and is responsible for the canvass and certification. News-media expected-vote percentages are estimates, not the legal completed ballot count. California58 also maintains a separate city mayoral vote tracker, which should not be combined with District 3 totals. California’s statewide certification is scheduled for December 11.

Sources: Los Angeles County Registrar results via the time-stamped District 3 tracker, November 4 at 4:32 p.m.; Los Angeles Times November 4; MyNewsLA November 5. This is a November 5 report about incomplete and uncertified vote totals.

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